Flotation Device celebrates the 100th birthday of Sam Rivers (1923–2011), the versatile bandleader and woodwind player whose discography includes recordings with Miles Davis and Anthony Braxton. We also catch up on several interesting new releases, including Scottish composer James Dillon’s first portrait album in over a decade, plus fresh anthologies from Kevin Puts and Sarah Davachi that reflect their very different stylistic paths from the common fount of musical minimalism. Also, Olga Neuwirth accompanies Claire Chase with a typewriter, PoiL Ueda accompanies Japanese war epics with rock-n-roll, and Idol Ko Si and Location Location Location find new, off-kilter approaches to the power trio format. Cult of Light explores haunted asylums, Lary 7 explores Canal Street surplus stores, and Nasim Khorassani reworks the tersest, most modern propensities of Aaron Copland, who’s himself represented by an astringent and little-known late work for its 50th anniversary.
Global chart history
Top position held by this upload
Comments
Flotation Device 2023-09-24: Annotated playlist by host Michael Schell
Intro and SET 1: The new Scottish complexity [0:00]
1. [1:33] Location Location Location: Crisis of Attention. From Damaged Goods (Cuneiform, 2023) with Anthony Pirog (guitar), Michael Formanek (bass), Mike Pride (drums). NOTE: Composition by Mike Pride
2. [6:13] Idol Ko Si: Room To Dine. From Idol Ko Si 6 (2182 Recording Company, 2023) with Robert Millis (guitar), Matthew Ford (drums), Min Yee (bass, recording engineer)
3. [8:21] Lary 7: MECHANO-BLEEP. From Larynx (Blank Forms, 2023)
4. [13:28] James Dillon: EMBLEMATA: Carnival - 1. rope dance, 14. a dawn elegy, 15. phosphorus, 4. snow alley, 2. shadow play. From EMBLEMATA: Carnival (Delphian, 2023) with Red Note Ensemble: Ruth Morley (flute), William White (clarinet, bass clarinet), Jacqueline Shave (violin), Robert Irvine (cello), Simon Smith (piano, electronic keyboard), Tom Hunter (percussion), Geoffrey Paterson (conductor), Paul Baxter (recording engineer)
⠀
SET 2: Sam Rivers at 100 [24:34]
1. [27:41] James Dillon: Ti.re-ti.ke-dha for solo drummer. From James Dillon 2: Chamber Music (naïve/Montaigne, 1995) with Guy Frisch (drums). NOTE: Composed 1979
2. [33:45] Sam Rivers: Onyx & Topaz. From Hues (Impulse!, 1974) with Sam Rivers (soprano saxophone, flute), Arild Andersen (bass), Barry Altschul (drums, percussion). NOTE: Recorded live August 3, 1973 at Molde Jazz Festival, Molde, Norway
3. [42:02] Dave Holland: Q & A. From Conference of the Birds (ECM, 1973) with Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers (reeds, flute), Dave Holland (acoustic bass), Barry Altschul (percussion), Tony May (recording engineer)
4. [50:36] Sam Rivers: Ivory Black. From Hues (Impulse!, 1974) with Sam Rivers (piano), Cecil McBee (bass), Barry Altschul (drums, percussion). NOTE: Recorded live November 10, 1973 at Battell Chapel, Yale University, New Haven, CT
5. [54:50] Outro with Miles Davis, Sam Rivers: All of You
6. [58:45] PoiL Ueda: Kumo 雲(船弁慶). From Yoshitsune (Dur et Doux, 2023) with Junko Ueda (vocals, satsuma biwa), PoiL: Antoine Arnera (keyboards, vocals), Boris Cassone (guitar, vocals), Benoit Lecomte (acoustic bass), Guilhem Meier (drums, vocals), Stéphane Piot (recording engineer)
⠀
SET 3: Homage to Olivetti [1:08:27]
1. [1:09:26] Voice break with Julian Priester: Polarization
2. [1:11:37] Olga Neuwirth: Magic Flu-idity (excerpt). From Density 2036: Part VI 2019 (New Focus, 2023) with Claire Chase (flute), Nathan Davis (typewriter), David Dennison (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 2019, arrangement of Aello (Ballet mécanomorphe)
3. [1:17:48] Aaron Copland: Night Thoughts, Homage to Ives. From Piano Fantasy et al (Delos, 1987) with Charles Fierro (piano), Carson C. Taylor (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 1972, premiered September 30, 1973 by Vladimir Viardo at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Fort Worth, TX
4. [1:24:36] Nasim Khorassani: Growth. From Sirventès (New Focus, 2023) with Katherine Bormann (violin), Eliesha Nelson (viola), Brian Thornton (cello), Robert Friedrich (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 2017
⠀
SET 4: Chill music for the open-eared [1:31:47]
1. [1:35:08] Kevin Puts: The City (excerpt). From The City (Naxos, 2023) with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop (conductor), Rick Jacobsohn (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 2016
2. [1:44:49] Cult of Light: Uncharted Corridors. From Music for Haunted Asylums (Eighth Tower, 2023) with Davide Del Col, Ascanio Borga (dark electronics)
3. [1:48:58] Sarah Davachi: In The Grand Luxe Hall (excerpt). From Selected Works I & II (Late Music, 2023) with Sarah Davachi, Richard Smith (EMS Synthi AKS synthesizer), Marina Hasselberg (cello), Ben Wilson (recording engineer). NOTE: Recorded November 2016 at Western Front, Vancouver, BC
4. [1:55:45] Outro with Phill Niblock: Sweet Potato
Photo credits: Nasim Khorassani via the artist, Sam Rivers by Tom Marcello, Poil Ueda (Guilhem Meier, Boris Cassone, Junko Ueda, Antoine Arnera, Benoit Lecompte) by Paul Bourdrel, Sarah Davachi via the artist, James Dillon by Simon Jay Price, Min Yee via the artist, Olga Neuwirth by Dieter Brasch, Sam Rivers with Anthony Braxton and Dave Holland (on cello) by Todd Barkan, Lary 7 via the artist, Aaron Copland by CBS, Kevin Puts by David White